Africa

The New York Shipping Exchange (NYSHEX), which operates a platform on which shippers and ocean carriers can negotiate so-called “smart” contracts, has appointed four new members to its board of directors, the company said in a statement Tuesday. The newest members of the NYSHEX board include Bjorn Jensen, vice president of global logistics for Electrolux; Jochen Gutschmidt, head of global logistics procurement at Nestlé; Nick Fafoutis, senior VP of sales and CCO of CMA CGM Ameri...

New global standards proposed by the International Maritime Organization to reduce the maximum sulfur content in ship fuel to 0.5 percent (by mass) after Jan. 1, 2020 from the current global cap of 3.5 percent will reduce deaths and illness related to fine particle emissions, according to a paper titled, " Cleaner fuels for ships provide public health benefits with climate tradeoffs ," which was published in the scientific journal Nature Communications . “Cleaner marine fue...

The broad-based recovery seen in global ocean shipping is likely to continue in 2018, provided vessel owners don’t shoot themselves in the foot by ordering a raft of newbuild ships, according to a recent report from credit ratings provider S&P Global Ratings. According to the report, entitled "Global Shipping Is On Course For Recovery In 2018, But All Eyes Are On Orderbooks,” demand is poised to outstrip supply in all three segments of the global ocean shipping industry - co...

The International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Subcommittee on Pollution Prevention and Response, which met in London this week, has proposed to move forward with banning the transport of non-compliant low-sulfur fuel on board ships when the 0.5 percent low sulfur limit enters force in 2020. To ensure consistent implementation of the IMO's low-sulfur regulation, the subcommittee also agreed to draft amendments to the MARPOL (International Convention for the Prevention of Pollut...

Hapag-Lloyd has recently opened a new office in Ghana’s port city of Tema. “Africa is strongly developing just now,” said Lars Christiansen, senior managing director of Hapag-Lloyd’s Mideast region, in a statement. “To benefit from this growth, it’s important for us to strengthen our presence in Ghana with our own office - and to get even closer to our local customers.” The office is staffed with 26 employees and managed by Steen Morch Petersen, Hapag-Lloyd’s managi...

Specialist African ocean carrier NileDutch has begun working with Transmetrics, a tech startup that provides predictive logistics solutions, in an effort to streamline the firm’s empty container flows and increase efficiency, NileDutch said in a statement. In addition, the partnership with NileDutch will allow Transmetrics to launch its new product, dubbed “AssetMetrics,” which increases the quality of a company’s historical data and uses an intelligent algorithm to produce dema...

Global airfreight demand soared 9 percent year-over-year in 2017, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Global airfreight volumes rose 9 percent in 2017 compared with the previous year, according to the latest data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Demand growth for the year was more than double the 3.6 percent annual growth recorded in 2016 and significantly outpaced capacity growth, which ticked up 3 percent in 2017, the slowe...

Ocean carrier Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC) will introduce a roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) service between Europe and West Africa in February for rolling, project and breakbulk cargo, the company announced. The service will commence Feb. 19 out of Le Havre, operating with two vessels, the MSC Immacolata and MSC Cristiana . It will operate on a fortnightly basis between Le Havre, Antwerp, Dakar, Conakry, Abidjan and back to Le Havre. MSC said that in addit...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its global economic growth estimates for the 2017, 2018 and 2019 years. The IMF now estimates global economic output to have grown 3.7 percent last year, 0.1 percentage point faster than previously projected and 0.5 percentage points above the 3.2 percent growth rate seen in 2016, according to the fund’s latest quarterly World Economic Outlook (WEO) Update. The fourth quarter growth represents a continuation and accel...

Ocean carrier Hapag-Lloyd will commence a new weekly service between the Port of Jeddah and the east coast of Africa in April. Dubbed the East Africa Service (EAS), the port rotation will be Jeddah, Mombasa, Dar es Salaam and back to Jeddah. The EAS will be the first in Hapag-Lloyd's network to call the ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, the carrier said. Hapag-Lloyd will be the sole operator on the service, initially deploying four vessels with a capa...

The Airforwarders Association (AfA) and The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA) are teaming up in an effort to better serve their members, according to a statement from AfA. The two groups signed a memorandum of understanding that will see them cooperate on air cargo matters and mutually promote each others’ services. The AfA said the agreement “is the first stage of an alliance between both organizations, enabling them to strengthen cooperation on aviation ...

Global logistics and transportation solutions provider BDP International (BDP) has opened new offices in Nairobi and Mombasa, Kenya. BDP said it can now cover a "more comprehensive scope of logistics services to clients in East Africa." Starting today, these facilities began offering various logistics services, including air and ocean freight forwarding, customs brokerage and compliance services. Additional services offered include overland transportation, multi-mo...

Airfreight volumes in October 2017 increased 5.3 percent year-over-year, according to data from the Airports Council International (ACI), the trade association for airports across the world. "Airfreight numbers will likely exceed 7 percent global growth by the end of 2017, almost double 2016’s 4 percent," ACI said. Year-over-year, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions saw growth rates of 1.3 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively, during the month, while...

The Commerce Department has set antidumping duty rates on carbon and alloy steel wire rod imports from South Africa and the Ukraine. In its South Africa investigation, Commerce assigned a dumping rate of 142.26 percent for Scaw South Africa (Pty) Ltd., or Scaw Metals Group, and Consolidated Wire Industries. Davsteel Division of Cape Gate (Pty) Ltd. was found to have no shipments of subject merchandise during the period of investigation. All other South African producers/exporter...

The Treasury Department has issued a current list of countries that require or may require participation in, or cooperation with, an international boycott. The list includes Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. U.S. companies must use IRS Form 5713 to report operations in or related to countries participating in international boycotts unsanctioned by the U.S., and to report the receipt of boycott requests and...

Kenya Railways commenced the first standard gauge railway cargo train from Mombasa to Nairobi, which arrived at Nairobi’s inland container depot on Monday, the railroad announced. The SGR Line cargo train carried 52 wagons with cargo ranging from maize (corn) to TBL containers. Kenya’s Ports Authority head of Inland Container Deports Symon Wahome said that the train will increase efficiency and decrease transit times as daily operations increase from four to eight trains. &nbsp...

A record in worldwide air cargo volume that was set in October 2017 has already been broken, according to newly released statistics compiled by industry analyst WorldACD Market Data. November 2017 beat last October by 1.3 percent, WorldACD said Dec. 31, marking the third month in a row that year-over-year yield increase in USD had to be written in double figures, this time, the plus-17.3 percent was the highest since the recovery after the 2009-crisis. The price of...

There’s a sentiment in the shipping and logistics industry that’s uttered so often it has almost been accepted as fact through sheer repetition: the industry doesn’t adopt technology as fast as other industries and thus lags behind in numerous areas like automation and analytics. As with any sentiment as trite as this, there’s some truth to the idea that those involved with shipping have not adopted modern technology as aggressively as in other industries. But there’s also a who...

In a year-end message, the chairman of The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA) is warning against the practice of ordering newbuild freighters when there could be an economic downturn right around the corner. In his remarks, which were first posted on the online publishing platform Medium.com , TIACA chair Sebastiaan Scholte said that although freighters represent only 8 percent of the world’s fleet, they carry over 50 percent of global air cargo. “Almost 85...

U.S. President Donald Trump has recently taken steps to enforce eligibility requirements for countries enrolled in a U.S. trade preference program that allows them to export certain products into the United States duty free. The president partially suspended the Ukraine from the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) due to its failure to adequately protect intellectual property rights (IPR), despite years of encouragement and assistance from the U.S. government. As part o...

Benin’s Council of Ministers has tapped the Antwerp Port Authority’s consulting and investment subsidiary, Port of Antwerp International (PAI), to help modernize the Port of Cotonou. Cotonou handles about 12 million tons of cargo a year, and is one of the main gateway ports for the sub-region, in particular the countries of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali. Benin wants to grow the port, but the management and infrastructure at Cotonou are outdated. As a result, the Beni...

Maersk Line has launched a new online platform for end-to-end freight booking that aims to reduce last-minute booking cancellations, a spokesperson for the Danish ocean carrier has confirmed. The platform offers services on selected routes and ports in North China, including Qingdao, Xingang and Dalian to the East Coast of South America, West Africa and Southern part of Africa. However, Maersk "intends to continuously review performance and consider further expansion ...

Passionate or emotional? Assertive or overbearing? Each of these pairs of terms represent two sides of the same semantic coin. Unfortunately, however, the way in which people are labelled in the workplace still too often has more to do with their gender than the quality of their character. The shipping and logistics industry is unique in many ways, but it is similar to many in that women are not given the same advancement opportunities as men. Workforce composition and pay ineq...

The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) goal to grow the digital economy and continue promoting cross-border facilitation of e-commerce received widespread applause from shippers and express carriers on Wednesday as the trade body concluded its ministerial conference in Buenos Aires. “The fact that 70 countries, both developing and developed, are supporting a positive agenda to create a better environment for a digital trade framework is a tremendous boost for the e-commerce econom...

Global businesses say they remain committed to continued improvements and enhancements to the multilateral trade system that are supported through the World Trade Organization (WTO). “We firmly believe that strong and sound multilateral trade policies are vital to secure our common economic and societal objectives, and encourage all WTO members to make the necessary commitments to enable trade as an engine of growth and prosperity for all,” the International Chamber of Commerce ...

Former U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman said Wednesday that the United States shouldn’t view the World Trade Organization (WTO) as the bar by which to measure the effectiveness of trade enforcement. Froman, now a distinguished fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Council on Foreign Relations, was the USTR when the United States negotiated the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation free trade agreement that was abandoned in January by President Donald Trump. ...

Cargo throughput at major ports across the globe grew by 6.4 percent year-over-year during the third quarter of 2017, according to a report released by the Shanghai International Shipping Institute (SISI) on Monday. The SISI, an institution of research and consultation on international shipping industry development, said that although the year-over-year growth was strong last quarter, it was actually a slight drop compared to Q2 2017. However, growth was steady on t...

APM Terminals aims to assist farmers transport goods from inland Nigeria to the coast. APM Terminals (APMT) is working with international development groups to provide modern cold chain transportation solutions for farmers in northern Nigeria to bring produce to the market hub of Lagos. An estimated 15 million metric tons of Nigerian-grown perishable goods - including onions, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, okra, ginger and carrots - are lost annually due to poor logistics infrast...

The United States and Egypt this week firmed their commitment to strengthen bilateral trade between the countries. That was conclusion of a meeting of the bilateral Trade and Investment Council, which was formed under the 1999 Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) to discuss ways to further expand trade and investment between the two countries. During the council meeting, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) updated Egyptian officials ...

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which participated in the G20’s second meeting of the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity in Berlin this week, expressed overall disappointment at the international effort to curb excess steel capacity. “The forum has not made meaningful progress yet on the root causes of steel excess capacity, and pointing to short-term developments and worn out promises will not cure the fundamental causes of the problem,” USTR said in a statement...

Air cargo volumes are expecting to increase into 2018. Global airfreight in 2018 is expected to see continued gains in both cargo volumes and profits, according to forecasts from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Global industry net profit is expected to rise to $38.4 billion in 2018, an improvement from the $34.5 billion expected net profit in 2017. Cargo volumes are estimated to increase 4.5 percent to 62.5 million metric tons, compared to the 59.9 million m...

Barcelona-based freight forwarder Transglory is launching a new shipping service between Tunisia and China, Tunisian authorities and locally-based foreign investors said Dec. 1. The new line, which links the Tunisian Rades port and the Chinese Qingdao port in the northern suburbs of the capital Tunis, is expected to help Tunisia recover its regional importance to the shipping market and enhance China's presence in African continent, Transglory said. “Importing and e...

The shipbuilding industry needs to design ships differently and be more technologically innovative to reach world climate goals and counter cyber security risks, attendees at the annual Tripartite Shipbuilding Forum agreed after two days of discussion, forum organizers said this week. For over 16 years, Tripartite has provided an opportunity for representative associations of shipowners, classification societies and shipyards to discuss contemporary issues related to design, con...

Global airfreight volumes rose 5.9 percent in October from 12 months prior, according to the latest data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Demand growth continued to outstrip capacity growth during the month, which ticked up 3.7 percent from last October. Asia Pacific airlines experienced a 4.4 percent year-over-year uptick in airfreight volumes in October. “The region’s manufacturers continue to enjoy buoyant order books,” the IATA said. “And...

Pen Test Partners LLP, a so-called ‘ethical hacking’ company that partly specializes in security testing of maritime control systems, has found what it says is a vulnerability in the load planning processes used by container ships that could lead to a hacker gaining access to planning data. “Intercepting and modifying the messaging used in bay planning can be relatively straightforward if you know what you’re doing,” Pen Test Partners Senior Partner Ken Munro said. “We noticed ...

As of early November, investors have plunged more than $3.2 billion into more than 200 initial coin offerings (ICOs) globally in 2017, according Coinschedule, a database that tracks cryptocurrency activity. The lion’s share of that money has been raised since May, as speculators, institutional investors, and businesses flock to the hottest financial trend around. Yet this activity comes amid a tremendous amount of uncertainty around what cryptocurrencies are, their usefulness, ...

Container traffic will surpass the 200 million-TEU threshold for the first time ever in 2017, according to the latest Drewry Global Container Port Throughput Index. After October’s container forecast showed signs of container traffic potentially breaking the TEU record, more recent port statistics have confirmed the prediction and even suggest that Drewry will need to raise the outlook by the end of the year. Drewry’s Global Container Port Throughput Index fo...

APM Terminals Inland Services Africa inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government of Ghana and the road safety non-profit organization Amend for a new port and logistics hub in Tema. With a completion date slated for 2019, the project will also ensure that port access roads and highways will be safe and able to handle increased traffic flow. “We wanted to start this road safety initiative proactively with our customers and our partners before ...

A global surge in airfreight volumes in 2017 slowed somewhat in September, with year-over-year figures falling to 6.8 percent during the month and dropping 10.5 percent from August, according to newly released data from the Airports Council International (ACI), the global trade representative of the world’s airport authorities. Through the first nine months of the year, global freight shipping numbers were up 8.4 percent, according to ACI data. For the previous 12 months, shipp...

Carrier overbooking and shipper no-shows is a story as old as the container shipping industry itself. Container lines often overbook their vessels, similar to how airlines often sell more tickets for a flight than there are seats on the aircraft. This behavior, carriers argue, is induced by shippers and forwarders engaging in their own multiple bookings and no-shows, also referred to as “phantom bookings.” But shippers claim the reverse is true, that they only buy more slots th...

The Asia to West Africa trade is currently served by nine fully cellular container services that collectively deploy 101 vessels, according to BlueWater Reporting’s Capacity Report. The Asia-to-West Africa trade experienced a 7 percent year-over-year boost in container volumes during the third quarter of 2017, according to data from Container Trade Statistics, Drewry reported in its latest Container Insight Weekly . For the first nine months of the year, container throughput on...

The terminal operating arm of Chinese shipping company COSCO saw its container throughput increase 12.4 percent in October compared to the same month last year, newly released data show. Terminals operated by COSCO Ports handled 7.4 million TEUs last month, up from 6.6 million units in October 2016, according statistics released by the company Nov. 15. Of the 37 terminals across the globe listed in the company’s statistics, 28 saw increases in COSCO container traff...

While trade volumes are expected to continue increasing through the rest of the year, the World Trade Organization (WTO) forecasts that the pace of this growth will be slower than at the start of 2017. Specifically, the WTO Indicator (WTOI) for the fourth quarter of 2017 has registered at 102.2 signals, down from the trade body’s last reading of 102.6 signals in August. WTOI’s measurement of export orders suggests moderately strong growth in the coming months. Howev...

There will seemingly forever be debate about the merits of liner carrier industry consolidation and alliance formation, but one industry veteran who’s now on the buying side of the equation says alliances are good for shippers on the whole. “Alliances are good for cost and good for service,” Bill Rooney, vice president of strategic development at Kuehne + Nagel, said at the Coalition for the New England Companies for Trade’s (CONECT) Northeast Cargo Symposium in early November....

Most of the vessels sold at bank sales and at auction deals so far in 2017 have been purchased by U.S. companies, according to newly released data from commercial ship valuation service VesselsValue. U.S. owners have spent $624 million on 52 distressed vessels so far in 2017 via auction or at bank sales as of Nov. 13, according to VesselsValue. The amount came in at just under double what Greece has spent thus far, $385 million. South Korea is third on the list with $228 ...

Cargo sales and marketing company Network Airline Services (NAS) has inked a two-year extension to its contract for Africa Flight Services Kenya (AFS Kenya) to provide perishable cargo handling for four flights a week into Nairobi, NAS confirmed Nov. 13. AFS Kenya, one of the largest cargo handlers in the country, operates a special facility in Nairobi to support customers moving perishable cargoes from Kenya. This includes 4,735 square meters (about 51,000 square feet) of dedi...

A narrowing in the tonnage supply-demand gap beginning in late 2018, as well as restrained ordering are expected to boost an anticipated recovery in the chemical shipping market, according to the latest edition of the Chemical Forecaster, published by global shipping consultancy Drewry. Drewry estimates that the global chemical trade will grow at 3.3% in 2017, in part due to the strong vegetable oil trade from Southeast Asia to South Asia. A recent reduction in US exports due to...

Source: Pressmaster/Shutterstock Navis appoints general manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and OmniTRAX names executive vice president, industrial development group. Navis , a provider of terminal operating systems, has appointed Chuck Schneider to serve as general manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Schneider has spent the last 11 years in various leadership positions at the company, most recently serving as general manager for the Americas. As part of...

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), which represents shipowners’ associations covering more than 80 percent of the world’s maritime fleet, says the elimination of carbon emissions from oceangoing vessels is achievable by the end of this century. “ICS has a vision of zero CO2 emissions from shipping in the second half of the century,” Simon Bennett, the group’s policy director, said in a statement from the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany, this week. “We are...

Dry bulk shipping charter rates should recover beginning in the second quarter of 2018 due in part to strengthening Asian iron ore demand, according to the latest edition of the Dry Bulk Forecaster, published by global shipping consultancy Drewry. “Chinese steel production is expected to pick up pace at the end of winter, in the second quarter of next year, by which time production curbs will have relaxed,” Drewry explained in its analysis. “Strong infrastructure and constructi...

World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevêdo wants to boost international trade opportunities for the world’s multitude of small companies. According to the global trade body, more than 90 percent of all companies worldwide are small enterprises. These companies also account for 60 percent of all employment. However, in developing countries particularly, exports represent less than 10 percent of these firms’ total sales. “Clearly there is scope to...

Global airfreight markets in September 2017 rose 9.2 percent compared to the same period in 2016, according to the latest data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). While this growth in the slowest pace seen in the last five months, it is higher than the give-year average growth rate of 4.4 percent, IATA said. Freight capacity rose by 3.9 percent compared to September of last year, or less than half the pace of demand growth. This is positive for industry load...

Cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) grew in major markets during the third quarter of 2017 compared to the previous quarter, despite macroeconomic uncertainties in the Middle East, according to the latest report from global law firm Baker McKenzie. Globally, the U.S. was both the most acquisitive and the top targeted region, with 484 inbound deals valued at $50 billion and 536 outbound deals valued at $79.4 billion, the report stated. In Europe, cross-border deal val...

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) climate talks concluded last week with the publishing of a strategy draft, but no concrete goals for carbon dioxide (CO2) and greenhouse gas emissions reduction were decided upon. The IMO said in a statement that while the “structure of the strategy has been largely agreed, the detailed text to be included is still under discussion.” Short-term measures will be finalized by the Marine Environment Protection Committe...

The container shipping industry could reinvent itself over the next 50 years to the point that autonomous 50,000 TEU vessels are sailing the seas and only three or four major container shipping companies still exist, according to a prestigious global management consulting firm. In a "travel, transport and logistics" report released earlier this month, business management consultant McKinsey & Co. said that the industry is being roiled by digital technologies, big data and th...

Global air freight traffic reached a three-month peak in August, with a 10.5 percent global increase that brought year-to-date growth to 8.7 percent, according to newly released data from Airports Council International (ACI), the trade association for airports across the world. A general pattern that was seen in July continued in August for most regions, according to the ACI. North America and Latin America-Caribbean airport freight, which lagged behind in July, rallied to the g...

Will 2017 represent the end of the liner shipping crisis, or is it merely the end of the beginning? How has the unprecedented consolidation among container carriers affected the North American intermodal and trucking markets? These were among the most discussed questions during the 2017 IANA Intermodal Expo, put on in Long Beach, Calif. in September by the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA). According to projections from speakers and panelists at the ex...

It always seems so simple. A decision is made to expand your company’s supply chain, or to follow a customer into a new overseas market. You take a quick look at the map and start asking yourself how you are going to get product and equipment from Point A to Point B. The call to action goes out across the company, and eventually down to logistics, and even further into the customs group. Then the question comes back: “How in the world will we get it there?” Like oth...

London-based non-profit organization InfluenceMap continues to defend its recent report, Corporate Capture of the IMO, which accuses trade industry associations of "aggressively lobbying" the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in an effort to control climate change regulations, despite rebuttals from the trade associations named in the report. Several trade bodies, including the World Shipping Council (WSC), International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and Baltic and Inte...